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About The IGF

IndieGames.com is presented by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, which runs the Independent Games Festival & Summit every year at Game Developers Conference. The company (producer of the Game Developers Conference series, Gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine) established the Independent Games Festival in 1998 to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers.

Archive For March, 2010

They Need to be Fed is a gravity-based platformer with six worlds to visit, created by Jesse Venbrux in just under a week for YoYo Games' design-a-handheld competition. Your objective here is to reach the monster at the end of each level, jumping from platform to platform while avoiding contact with spikes, lasers, and even homing missiles fired from turrets.

A tutorial is included to help new players learn the controls, but anyone who is already familiar with Maru should be able to pick up the game and start playing immediately. (Windows, 8.22MB)

I Can Hold My Breath Forever is an underwater exploration adventure created by Jake Elliott for the Experimental Gameplay '10 Seconds' competition. The game follows a small creature as it dives deep to find its friend.

Along the way, the friend has left notes for the protagonist to find, which act as save points. Every time it dives into the water, a timer starts, counting down from 10 seconds. If it reaches zero, it dies and you'll be sent back to the last note you read.

It's incredibly powerful stuff. There's a dark yet lovely vibe to it all, and the 10 second time limit adds a sense of urgency - you know you'll be simply sent back to a recent point, yet the thought of killing the little guy plays on your mind.

Since their first collaboration at Blip Festival 08, Mary Ann Benedetto (outpt) and Paris Graphics have appeared onstage together at close to a hundred chip concerts. Their luminescent retro game visuals have graced many a wall in the New York City area, and have been popping up at Datapop at South by Southwest, two tours with Anamanaguchi, the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, and 8static chip events in Philadelphia. Paris has even presented talks on handheld graphics visualizers at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles while part of the Data Beez West Coast micro-tour.

This past weekend, while joining Anamanaguchi at the PAX East Friday concert, the two offered us details on an experimental indie game they are developing together: an interactive environment in its initial phases of development. The software is meant to involve audiences in the creative process behind generating live visuals.

Peter of Anamanaguchi announced at PAX East that the band would be writing the soundtrack to the forthcoming Scott Pilgrim videogame. Some people have been wondering whether what we were seeing during the performance of the game's theme song was all pre-recorded.

Paris: Yeah. We weren't even sure what we were going to see either. We've been sworn to secrecy, because that's been really confidential.

What platforms are you currently considering for your collaborative game title?

Outpt: Mac/ PC and web browser.

Paris: At this stage, in terms of prototyping things we are looking at what is practical. For instance, what kind of variables are there that would allow people to do something that would be rewarding or engaging?

Outpt: Our interest is in making a game that does not have a win or lose scenario, something that is organic in its use of audio and graphics.

Be warned - if you are not blessed with patience and/or cat-like reflexes, CosmiCube may cause you to break things. It's a Marble Madness style ball-roller, controlled via slow, precise mouse movements, with the occasional flick.

Many of the levels can be completed be simply rolling the ball along the obvious path, but as the above video demonstrates, it's also possible to throw the ball across the level with a flick on the mouse, leading to some speedy scores. There are global high score boards too, so you can see just how crazy some people are.

Here's the first trailer for pixelinvoke's new freeware 2D platformer, redScratch. The full game is set to feature nine different stages to play through, and will be released for PC sometime later this year.

Mamono Saber is a one-button arcade game where you are in control of a knight who can only move forward at a steady pace, determined to rescue the princess and save the kingdom once again. Our hero jumps whenever the player clicks on the screen, while the outcome of a battle is determined automatically by the manner in which the protagonist comes into contact with a monster. A normal enemy is defeated if you touch it with the tip of your blade, although bosses will require a couple more hits before admitting defeat.

The game can be tricky to beat as players are only allowed one try to complete the entire quest, but with a bit of perseverance it shouldn't be too difficult of a task since health can be replenished rather frequently during the rescue mission. There are four levels to play through in total.

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: Markus 'Notch' Persson chats with Gamasutra about the internet sensation Minecraft, Wolfire Games shedding some light on their upcoming brawler Overgrowth, and Andy Schatz talking about his 2010 IGF Grand Prize winning entry, Monaco. (image source)

Gamasutra: Notch Talks Making Minecraft
"Today, Markus 'Notch' Persson has over 6000 paying players and many more who play Minecraft for free online. We caught up with him and administered a lengthy interview."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Wolfire Talk Overgrowth
" I had a quick natter with Aubrey Serr, Wolfire’s lead artist and John Graham, Wolfire’s self-proclaimed coffee operations officer, about what Overgrowth is, where it’s at and the highs and low of self-funded development."

Games Fascination: Interview with Retro Affect
"Retro Affect is currently working on Snapshot, which was nominated for Excellence in Design at the Independent Games Festival in 2009. Kyle Pulver, Peter Jones and David Carrigg of Retro Affect recently took some time out to talk with us."

Treasure Island Online is an interesting experiment by Jesse Venbrux. Created in 2 days, the idea is that there's a treasure chest hidden under one of the tiles on show. The chest contains about 25 gold pieces, but each time you dig a tile, it costs 1 gold.

The twist is that the game board is connected to an online database, and every player can see the same board. So when another player digs a tile, you see the pit appear. Once the chest is found, the board resets.

So the question is, do you go digging and hope you find it before anyone else, or let them all waste their gold, then steal it from them with minimum effort? Go download it and find out.

Winner Vs. Loser is an arcade sports game that is best played together with a friend, as Benzido did not include a story mode or an AI-controlled athlete to compete with you when you don't have a buddy around to play against.

Tapping the button at a steady pace causes the runner to sprint, and holding the same key down for a second or two directs him to jump over hurdles. Winner Vs. Loser was originally created for submission to the Gamma IV showcase, but the game eventually lost out to the six finalists that were picked for the exhibition at GDC.

Run Jesus Run (10 Second Gospel) is a short browser-based game that will take a couple of tries to beat, created by Paolo Pedercini as his entry into this month's Experimental Gameplay game development theme. Your objective here is to figure out what to do on each screen before time runs out, and if you make it to the end you'll be shown a quick congratulatory screen as a reward.